Originally Posted by Trollheart

Yeah that's fair comment, but let's remember that those put into the Colosseum were basically enemies of the State (i.e., Christians) and certainly not Roman citizens. As I said, if you paid your taxes, worshipped the right gods and kept your long aquiline Roman nose clean, in essence the senate left you alone. Certainly there was infighting among the noble houses, but in terms of being oppressed by your own government as a normal, law-abiding citizen, I don't think it really happened.

I suppose you could maybe see Castro as one too, though of course he crushed his enemies, but then, gotta crush something, ya know?

Originally Posted by Marie Monday

um what you describe there is kind of fascist and very oppressive though. If you personally don't experience obvious consequences of oppression that doesn't mean you're not oppressed. The whole idea of a dictator is that they enforce their own authority and opposition is not allowed, which can't be enforced without violence towards dissidents, which is not benevolent.

Originally Posted by Pet_Sounds

But looking for quality interaction on MB is like trying to stay hydrated by drinking salt water.